U.S. Marshals Service
and Law Enforcement Partners Arrest 139 People in Operation Clean Slate

The U.S. Marshals Service and its law enforcement partners have arrested 139
people in connection with Operation Clean Slate – a sex offender compliance
operation.

The arrests were carried out by teams of Deputies, Agents, and Officers
comprised of the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task
Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Secret Service,
Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole, Alabama Bureau of Investigation, the
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the Birmingham Police Department, and the
Hoover Police Department.

U.S. Marshal C. Martin Keely stated, “The purpose of this cooperative effort
is to check the compliance of 957 Registered Sex Offenders who reside within
Jefferson County and the municipalities of the County.”

Clean Slate is a two phase operation. Phase One of Clean Slate began about
three months ago, with 550 sex offenders being checked for compliance.
Approximately 78% of offenders were determined to be compliant with sex
offender registration laws. Of those found to be non-compliant, arrest
warrants were issued and 139 people were arrested for violations of sex
offender registration laws, and other outstanding felony or misdemeanor
warrants. As a result of Clean Slate, 194 warrants have been cleared.

Arrests of interest include:

Bobby Ray Overton, 33, a convicted sex offender whose conviction was for the
rape of two six year old females in 2003. Overton was arrested in
Birmingham, in a utility shed behind a residence for failing to register and
faces an additional charge of residing with children. He remains in state
custody.

James H. May, 28, was also wanted on an arrest warrant for failure to
register. When the arrest team arrived at May’s Jefferson County residence,
he barricaded himself inside. After negotiations, May was arrested. He
faces additional charges of failure to provide a thirty-day notice of
changing address and residing within 2000 feet of a school, Burglary first
degree, and the attempted rape of a fourteen year old girl which occurred
approximately twenty-four hours before he was arrested. He is currently in
state custody.

Anthony Darneil Knight, 34, was wanted on an arrest warrant from Birmingham
for failure to register. Deputies in Birmingham developed information that
Knight was in Hammond, Louisiana, and requested assistance from the Marshals
Service there. Knight’s under lying offense was for sexual assault on a
two year old child. Deputies encountered Knight in the master bedroom of
his home holding a Beretta 9mm pistol to his head, threatening to kill
himself. During negotiations, Knight turned his gun on deputies and failed
to respond to commands to drop the weapon. A Deputy fired his weapon, and
Knight was struck. He received a non-life threatening injury and was treated
at a local hospital. Knight was arrested for his failure to register,
and is in custody where he faces additional state and federal charges for
possession of weapon, assault on a federal officer and Adam Walsh Act
violations.

Phase Two of Clean Slate is underway with compliance checks for the
remaining registered sex offenders. U.S. Marshal Keely states, “The message
is clear, law enforcement at the Federal, State, County, and Municipal
levels are committed to the enforcement of the Adam Walsh Act and local sex
offender laws. If you are a sex offender, you have seen, or will be seeing
a law enforcement team at your door to verify your compliance with sex
offender registration laws. If you are a sex offender who is not compliant,
you will be arrested.”